The Allahabad High Court will give its verdict today on Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee's (AIMC) petition contesting the Varanasi district court's decision to allow Hindu prayers in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque. On January 31, the Varanasi District Court ordered that a priest might pray in the Gyanvapi mosque's southern cellar. The ruling was issued in response to Shailendra Kumar Pathak's petition, which said that his maternal grandpa, Somnath Vyas, gave prayers till December 1993.
Pathak had demanded that, as a hereditary pujari, he be permitted to enter the tahkhana and resume pooja.
The mosque features four 'tehkhanas' (cellars) in the basement, one of which is currently occupied by the Vyas family.
The Varanasi district court ruling came one day after an Archaeological Survey of India's (ASI) report on the mosque complex was made public.
The ASI assessment, ordered by the same court in connection with a similar lawsuit, indicated that the mosque was built over the remnants of a Hindu temple during Aurangzeb's reign.
The mosque committee rejected the petitioner's version. The committee stated that there were no idols in the cellar, hence no prayers may be offered there until 1993.
The committee proceeded to the high court on February 2, only hours after the Supreme Court refused to hear its appeal against the Varanasi district court judgment and asked it to do so. The Allahabad High Court reserved its decision after hearing both parties on February 15.
Earlier, Asaduddin Owaisi, head of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), stated that the Varanasi court's decision to allow Hindu devotees to pray inside the 'Vyas Ka Tekhana' part of the Gyanvapi mosque complex violated the Places of Worship Act.